Inaction In Action

I Took Control of My Life, Just as Anyone Can; And I Want Everyone to See It's in the Palm of Your Hand

2008-12-12T11:13:00.001-07:00

This blog is still dead with no current plans for resurrection. However, a lot has happened over the past year so I thought I would at least provide an update.

I now live in Portland, Oregon. I love it here. I loved Colorado, too, but this place definitely rocks.

I am not going to Costa Rica as detailed in the previous post. Instead I am going to London. I still very much want to go to Costa Rica, but London was calling, as they say.

That's it. Life is very good. Now back to the lurking.

I Knew Just What to Say, Now I Found Out Today That All the Words Had Slipped Away

2007-11-27T10:58:00.000-07:00

Hello faithful readers. Sorry it has been awhile since I last put a post up, but I need to take a break from blogging. It has nothing to do with the last post, and since I recognize that the last post was a pretty down note to end on, I figure I should give you all an update.

Things are actually going quite well. I had a great Thanksgiving, which was an extra long weekend for me since I took time off to be with the girls, who were out of school. The mrs. and I sat down and took a good hard look at the budget and our financial situation and we figure that if we stick with it, we can have a significant portion of our debt paid off by March of 2009, and be able to take a trip to Costa Rica to celebrate the accomplishment. So, that is what we are working towards now. I did have an interview for a part-time job, but alas, they gave the position to someone else. While the extra money would have definitely been nice, perhaps it is for the best right now. As SLG pointed out, it is hard to put a price on the time you get to spend with your family.

So with a plan in place and a goal in mind, I face the next year and a half with a lot of hope that we can finally be where we want to be. In the meantime, I have to take a break from posting. Don’t worry, it’s nothing serious. It just needs to be done. Thank you all for stopping by here as I have truly enjoyed your company. Best of luck to you all.

John

Smells Like Autumn, Smells Like Leaves; You Don’t Know That You’ll Rust and Not Belong So Much

2007-11-07T09:23:00.000-07:00

I think I’m depressed. Not the serious clinical put-me-on-24-hour-watch type of depression, but the pre-winter, post vacation blah kind of depression. Don’t get me wrong, life is good. No complaints. But I’m still experiencing a let down of sorts from coming back from Florida. I’m a guy who likes to travel and craves to see the world. However, due to financial and personal reasons, we haven’t been able to go on many big vacations in recent years. I was hoping that this excursion to Florida would somewhat satiate my wanderlust, but instead it just exacerbated it. It’s like I got a small taste of what could be, and then left back with what things really are. To make it worse, we are on the cusp of winter and I really don’t like snow and cold. I think I suffer from seasonal affective disorder because the winter months are especially rough for me. Living in Colorado has certainly helped since it is still actually sunny outside during the winter, but still the short days, long nights, and bitter cold really get to me. I’m serious when I say I could easily see myself as a snow bird during my retirement years spending the winter in a timeshare in some warm local where it never snows. Hey, if I had the money I would be doing it now.

But that’s the problem. I don’t have any money. Well, I take that back. I have money, however, I am currently using that money to pay myself back from the time when I didn’t have any money. You see, faithful readers, a few years back the mrs. and I hit a bit of a financial rough patch, you might say (cue violin music). After enduring several rounds of layoffs, wage cuts, and raise freezes for about a year, my number finally came up at my former employer. That was a few months after my wife got laid off from her job. Since the recent economic downturn hit our area pretty hard, employment around here was fairly scarce (and some would argue that it still is). So, with two mouths under 4 to feed and a mounting pile of bills to pay, we got desperate and moved to Minnesota where I took a good job in a place that absolutely sucked. Talk about enduring a bad winter. Not only was living in MN crappy, but we never sold our house in Colorado which meant that we were paying a mortgage on an empty house and all the complimentary bills that go along with it, on top of the rent for the small 2-bedroom apartment we were renting in MN and all of the bills that goes along with that. Sure, I had a better job, but what’s the point of making more money when all of the extra you make is going to pay for an empty house in a place we would rather be at? We were ready to move back within six months. We figured, hey, if we are going to be broke we might as well at least be in a place we love vs. the frozen wasteland hell that goes by the name Minnesota. So, we moved back into our house and I had the very good fortune of staying with my employer from Minnesota but working out of the Denver branch. I eventually changed divisions working for the (former) Big Boss Lady and that pretty much leads up to the beginning of this blog.

Believe it or not, that’s the short version of the story. The good news is that so far life has been leading us up to a happy ending. I worked down in Denver for about three more years and when I finally got fed up with it, I landed a better job much closer to home. The mrs. also has a good job close to home and the two of us together are slowly climbing out of the big hole we found ourselves in when things took a turn for the worst. It’s been a hard climb out, though, and one of the opportunity costs for us having to pay back our massive debt has been to not take whirlwind trips through Europe, winter vacations in Hawaii, or even trips back to see family. This past Florida trip was the first time my whole family had been together in over 2 years. It’s been even longer for the mrs. side.

So now, there’s the conundrum. The mrs. and I have a budget set that will get us out of debt so we can finally go and do the things we want to do. Unfortunately it is going to take a couple of more years to get there. I believe they call that “delayed gratification.” You save and take care of the more pressing things in your present so you can have the means to enjoy the future. The brain says, “That makes sense.” My heart says, “Screw that! Let’s blow the budget on another big vacation!!!!” Right now the brain is winning only by the slightest margin. The heart is putting up one hell of a fight.

So, what’s a depressed, impatient person to do? The mrs. suggested getting a second job and using those proceeds as extra money outside the budget to use towards another vacation and other weekend getaways. Sounds good. So, that’s what I’m doing now. I’m trying to find a part time evening position that isn’t in fast food or telemarketing. Sounds easy enough, but it’s actually been pretty tough trying to work around my current hours. I need a low-stress job that pays me well to just sit around and play on the computer for my whole shift. You know, kinda like my day job but at night…

Visions of Good Times That Brought So Much Pleasure Makes Me Want to Go Back Again

2007-10-25T12:52:00.000-06:00

Ok, faithful readers, as promised, here is my post-vacation post. We went to Florida. It was awesome. The whole thing pretty much came about from my parents. I guess the company that my father works for had a pretty good year last year and so my dad got a hefty-sized bonus as a result. My mom asked him if he wanted to go to Europe, take a cruise, etc, with the money but instead he decided that he wanted to take all of the grandkids to Disneyworld. Apparently the old man is a softie at heart. So, my parents organized this whole big trip where my family, my sister’s family, my brother, and both my parents would converge on Orlando during the October teaching break (my mom, sister, and brother are all teachers) and do the whole Disney thing, compliments of my dad. The mrs. and I decided that we would go out a few days before the scheduled meet-up and spend some time at the beach to get some much needed R&R. And let me tell ya, as fun as we had being with my family at Disneyworld, our time on the beach was definitely the highlight of our trip. We made no plans and we had no schedules. We literally just went to different beaches up and down the eastern shoreline and enjoyed the ocean. The girls had a blast. They never got bored just running in and out of the waves for hours, or simply making castles in the sand. The mrs. didn’t want to leave. She went from never seeing the ocean before to now trying to figure out how we can buy a beach house. I wouldn’t mind. Summers in the mountains and winters on the beach sounds mighty fine to me.

Anyway, here are some pictures from the trip:

Here is the view from our hotel balcony. We originally had a different room, but I worked my Johnny mojo and got an ocean-view suite on the seventh floor. As much as I love the mountains, I could definitely get used to a view like that every morning.

We went to several beaches during our stay, but this picture is of Sebastian Inlet State Park. This place was pretty nice. The waves were pretty rough for swimming (but apparently world famous for surfing) on the ocean coast, but inside the inlet the waters were much calmer. One of the coolest parts of this beach was that from the jetty pictured above you could see a lot of dolphin jumping in the water. Supposedly you could see manatee as well, but we didn’t spot any that day. We did see a jellyfish though. The girls were fascinated. The mrs. was disgusted. It looked like a big glob of petroleum jelly to me.

We had originally signed up my oldest daughter for surfing lessons before we left so we could give her an experience that she couldn’t get here in landlocked Colorado. However, when we got there the surfing place advised us that the wave conditions were way too rough for a child her age/size. So, I took the lesson instead. I didn’t do too badly, either, for never having been on a surfboard before. I got up the very first time, and a few more times after that, even. And that was in rough conditions. I guess I’m like a total surfer dude, now, bro.

Your choice of captions:

“Just add water”

Or

“Ok, you’ve got the pose down. Now we need to work on that tan…”

And here’s me riding the wave back to shore. That was a lot of fun, and believe it or not, a lot of hard work. To me, the hard part wasn’t trying to stand up on the board; it was trying to paddle out against huge, salty waves crashing in your face just so you could get far enough out to get to that point. I would do it again, though, for sure.

Since we stayed just mile or two south of Cape Canaveral, we were lucky enough to catch a rocket launching one morning. We saw this liftoff right outside our hotel room. That was pretty cool and totally unexpected.

Of all the fun things we did, though, my favorite was just simply being with the mrs. and the girls and watching the waves roll in. With as busy as everyone’s lives are with school, work, lessons, and just about every other obligation that keeps us constantly on the move, it was nice to just relax and spend time together as a family.

And speaking of family, we eventually had to leave the beach and go meet up with the rest of my family in Disneyworld. As relaxing as the beach was, Disney was the opposite. We were non-stop-go the whole time we were there. But we rode all of the rides, saw all of the parks, and hugged all of the costumed characters walking around. We even got my mom to ride on Space Mountain, no small feat, let me tell ya. Disney is everything you expect it to be. It’s huge, it’s commercial, and there are a lot of people there even in the off-season. But I have to say, though, that they definitely go all out to please. All of the rides were top-notch, the park is extremely clean, and if you are on the plan, the meals are huge. I had a great time and it was good to have the whole family together in one place for the first time in over two years.

It all went by way too quickly. Now I am back at work having slowly adjusted back to the old routine. I need to be rich so I can travel all of the time without the worries of my existing financial obligations. Anyone have any suggestions on how I can become independently wealthy? Thanks.

Well Thanks For the Time, I Needed to Think a Spell

2007-10-22T12:56:00.000-06:00

My body may be back at work, but my mind is definitely still here:

More pictures to come once the jet lag wears off and the realization that I have to return to my normal routine sets in...

I Found Out Long Ago, It's a Long Way Down the Holiday Road

2007-10-12T11:12:00.000-06:00

I'm going on vacation. In less than two days' time I will be laying on the beach. This will be good.

Please Forgive the Words I Use, My Mind it Tends to Run, Away With the Small Ideas (I Know I'm Not the Only One)

2007-10-04T13:09:00.000-06:00

I like American football a lot. I like other sports, but football is the one that I by far follow the most. But this isn’t about football, it’s about baseball. I like baseball, but as I just mentioned, I don’t get all crazy over it. That being said, I have to give it up for the local team, the Colorado Rockies. Ok, I admit it. I haven’t been watching them since the season opened back in April. I haven’t even been watching them up until a week ago. So, yes, I am a bandwagoneer. But you tell me this: if your home team who has only been to the playoffs once in their existence (12 years ago) just won 13 of their past 14 games, pushed a one-game playoff game just to get into the playoffs, then stretched out that game 13 innings to finally break the tie, wouldn’t you be just a little bit excited for them? Yeah, I thought so.

So, I don’t know if they will go far in the playoffs or not. But I do know that it’s pretty cool to see them get in after all of these years. Plus the Rockies’ star player, Todd Helton, once played quarterback for the University of Tennessee, my favorite college football team (he started one game after the regular QB broke his leg. The next game the staff went with a little-known true freshman by the name of Peyton Manning…). You see, it always comes back to football.

I haven’t done any music posts in recent memory, so I figure that it’s about time to do a quick rundown of some new tunes I’ve been listening to lately:

Tegan & Sara. The critically acclaimed sister act. I kept hearing all this hype about their new album, The Con, so I figured I should check it out. I have been avoiding them since they have been featured prominently on Grey’s Anatomy, a show that I’ve never seen, but also prominently highlights musical samplings of acts that suck completely like The Fray and Snow Patrol (yes, I know that The Fray is from Colorado. That doesn’t mean that they still don’t suck). However, Grey’s Anatomy also plays Brandi Carlile, who is super good, so I figured it was worth a shot. I picked up The Con and So Jealous. They’re ok. Not bad, but no Brandi Carlile.

And speaking of Brandi Carlile, she put out an album a few months back called The Story. That gal can sure belt it out. If you dig acoustic/folk rock by really strong female vocalists, then you should for sure check her out. I dig her.

Hmmm… what else. I recently picked up Challengers by The New Pornographers. I dug their old stuff, like Mass Romantic, so I figured this one would be good, too. It is. There are some really good cuts on this album. The title track has been stuck in my head a lot lately. It probably hasn’t helped that it is getting pretty heavy rotation on the local college station as well.

I got the new Iron & Wine. It sounds like Iron & Wine. Not that it’s a bad thing, since I like Iron & Wine. If you like Iron & Wine, you’ll probably like it, too. Boy, wasn’t that a deep analysis…

A few months back I picked up Songs We Sing by a guy named Matt Costa. It has been one of my favorite albums lately. It is kinda single guy folk-guitary. The songs are pretty catchy, though I have to admit a couple are a bit Beatlesque. But, then, who wasn’t influenced by the Fab Four? You gonna knock every band in the past 40 years?

A while back Sass recommended a group called Mother Mother. I took her up on that recommendation and picked up one of their albums. They have a very original sound, that’s for sure. I can honestly say that I have never heard anything like this band before. They aren’t bad, just very hard to describe. You should check them out, even if just for the opportunity to hear something completely different.

I’m sure there is a whole lot more lately that I’ve been listening to, but I can’t think of any more off the top of my head. If you faithful readers have any recommendations for me, please send them my way. I depend on word of mouth to know what the really good stuff is, so let me know if you’ve heard anything good lately.

* Update* I started this post the other day and didn’t finish it. As of the publishing of this post the Rockies are already up one game in the playoffs. Sweet.

Now I’m a Fat House Cat Cursing My Sore Blunt Tongue

2007-09-20T12:16:00.000-06:00

So, last Friday we had a speaker visit here at my place of employment to discuss conflict resolution. Attendance for this seminar was mandatory and we had to choose from two different sessions which one we would have to suffer through. I chose the morning one, as I wanted to get it over with as soon as possible, and I didn’t want to have to take my lunch early just to lose it later that afternoon after listening to a pompous consultant for four hours straight.

As you may tell from my mildly-biased introductory paragraph, I tend to hold these fluff sessions in pretty high contempt. I personally find them a waste of time, and if my employer really wanted me to work more efficiently, effectively, etc, then they wouldn’t make me spend half my day listening to all of this crap and instead actually let me get some work done. So, as you can tell, I went into this thing with a pretty open, positive attitude.

Sure enough, it was exactly as I figured. A pompous, know-it-all speaker with a Ph.D. spoke in condescending, sweeping generalizations and used a lot of self-serving examples to really say nothing of any substance. She deftly avoided responding to any question that she couldn’t answer, and to those that she did answer she gave such watered-down, generic advice it sounded completely canned. I’ll admit, a little of what she presented did have some practical value, but none of it was new and I had encountered almost all of it before. On top of all of this, she had us do fun things like breaking off into groups and engaging in other activities designed to help us learn how to resolve our conflicts. I needed no help in my resolution. My opinion of all of this wasn’t the least bit conflicted at all.

Anyway, I bit my tongue and let several prime opportunities for calling this lady out pass by without incident. I was just going to keep my mouth shut and just try to tolerate it until the end despite what my brain was actually screaming. But, faithful readers, somewhere around the third hour my self control completely broke down. During one particularly lame exercise, my mouth started moving before I could stop it. I totally went off. I went off in front of all of my co-workers. I went off in front of my boss’s boss. I went off in front of my boss’s boss’s boss (who scheduled this thing in the first place). I went off in front of a whole room of people who had no idea who I was (being both relatively new and not being in their respective departments) and will now forever know me when they see me in the hall as “that one guy who totally went off.” When my mouth finally stopped moving, I looked around and realized what had happened. People were cheering, but it was too late. I was totally embarrassed at my lack of self control. Here I am, I’ve only been here six months and really hardly know anybody. What kind of idiot in that position goes off like that in front of upper management and half of the employee base? Well, apparently that question has been answered.

I talked to a couple of people after the session and then slunk my way back to my desk to try to recover the rest of my what-should-have-been-pleasant Friday afternoon. However, by later in the day news of my outburst had spread. It had spread so much that my name was even brought up during the second session (which my boss attended). I tried to sneak out of the office unnoticed, but it was completely in vain. Everyone I bumped into on the way out the door told me that they heard about my earlier performance. I was so embarrassed. I just wanted to go home.

I felt completely lame all weekend. I felt extremely lucky to have taken Monday off work to watch the girls during a day off from school (a day off already? They just started a few weeks ago…) because I was still way too embarrassed to go back. I feared the worst. Well, Tuesday rolled around despite my attempts to freeze time by putting my two index fingers together repeatedly. And, despite having that extra day of cushion off, it was exactly as I feared when I returned. Everyone wanted to talk to me about the incident. However, strangely enough, it was all very supportive. Most people told me that they were happy that I went off because they were waiting for someone to finally speak up (well, why didn’t they do it then?). A lot of people told me that they agreed with me completely and that they got more out of what I said in a few minutes than what the speaker said in four hours. One lady here told me that I should consider a career in conflict resolution consulting (after she jokingly asked for my autograph since I was now a “celebrity”) since she felt my input was much better than the Ph.D.’s. Another lady told me that in her department’s one hour staff meeting they spent at least 40 minutes discussing what I had to say (and some expressed disappointment for having missed it). My boss’s boss asked me if I had a background in theater (because I tend to cause drama?) because of how well I projected my voice and my comfort level when speaking to a large audience. When my boss brought up the subject, I told her that I was sorry and tried to explain, but she asked why would I be sorry and that she didn’t think the presentation was all that good, either.

Even a few days later I still have people coming up to me wanting to talk about it. Despite all of this, I am still pretty embarrassed over the whole ordeal. I should have just kept my mouth shut and played good little employee. I’m glad people felt inspired, but I’ve been around long enough in business to know that people who stick their necks out usually get their heads chopped off. But the incident must not have tarnished me too badly, because my six-month probationary period ended yesterday (I’ve been here six months already???) and they actually decided to hire me on as a full employee (suckers!). So, I guess there’s something about me that they like, despite my apparent proclivity to take paid consultants to task in front of executive management and half of the organization’s employees…

It's a Prairieman's World, It's Wide Open

2007-09-10T08:39:00.000-06:00

Ok, I know I am a little late on this, but here are some pics from my trip to South Dakota over Labor Day weekend. It was a great time and despite the mrs. just recovering from pneumonia, she hung in there pretty well. We had great weather the whole weekend and got to see a lot of pretty cool stuff.

I want to say first off that the Black Hills area is definitely some pretty country. I can see the attraction for motorcyclists to that area for sure. There are many picturesque, well-paved roads perfect for driving or riding with lots of curves and awesome views. We drove both the vaunted Needles and Iron Mountain scenic highways, respectively, and both lived up to their hype. That being said, the area is also very touristy. It kind of reminded me of Colorado Springs. You get equal parts natural beauty and kitsch. But, hey, that’s what the whole plan was for the area when they started carving Mount Rushmore almost a century ago. They wanted to turn the place into a tourist destination. And, well, I guess they succeeded because they at least got me to go there (for my second time, even).

We tried to avoid most of the super-touristy stuff, though. I mean, there is plenty to do and enjoy naturally in the area. For example, you can visit Wind Cave National Park. Faithful readers will remember that awhile back I made it a personal goal to visit all 58 US national parks. Well, guess what? I’m up to 8! Yee-haw! Anyway, Wind Cave is one of the oldest national parks (#6, 1903) and was protected for its unusually large collection of boxwork formations inside the cave. In fact, around 95% of the world’s boxwork is found in this cave alone. At around 120 miles in length, it is also the fourth longest cave in the world. Pretty groovy.

Anyway, we took a tour and it was very informative (as you can tell by my Cliff Claven-like factoids in the preceding paragraph). No, we did not spelunk for all 120 miles of the cave. We did, however, spend just over an hour down there and got to see a whole lot of cool formations. One thing about trying to take pictures in a cave, though, is that it is hard to get really good pictures of the formations due to the lack of good lighting and depth. They also refuse to smile for you and tend to blink a lot. But here is one shot of some boxwork that kinda turned out when we flipped it to black and white.

Basically boxwork forms when calcite oozes between softer minerals and then when the softer rock wears away, it leaves the criss-cross patterns of the calcite remaining. Ah, screw it, here’s the wikipedia entry. That explains it a whole lot better (and has a better picture, too).

Once we finished at Wind Cave, we drove up into Custer State Park. This place was really cool and is famous for its large herds of buffalo and other wildlife protected at the site. When we pulled in, the ranger told us that if we wanted to see the buffalo that we should follow a couple of gravel roads into a more secluded section of the park. Well, she was right. We followed her directions and sure enough we saw buffalo. Lots of ‘em. They weren’t stampeding like on Dances with Wolves or anything, but it was still amazing to see so many of them together wandering free. It is hard to imagine that these huge beasts were once on the brink of extinction due to humanity’s own carelessness. I saw a lot of cool stuff that weekend, but this may have been the highlight. This wasn’t like being in a zoo. We literally drove up into the middle of a herd of buffalo. They were right there and we were right there with them. They came right up to the car window. Words cannot explain the experience. Neither can the pictures, but I’ll post a couple anyway.

I think there's a joke about a buffalo crossing the road here somewhere...

Herd of buffalo. What? Of course I’ve heard of buffalo. Sheesh…

We also saw lots of mule deer, pronghorn antelope, prairie dogs, and even a free-roaming gang of burros that are the remnants of an old pack of trail mules that were simply released into the park when the trail expeditions ended years ago. They are now nicknamed the “Begging Burros” because of their tendency to block the road until approaching cars give them food. We fed them pretzels and were allowed to pass on up the Iron Mountain Highway. I guess it beats having to fight the Black Knight…

The Iron Mountain Highway was awesome. This is one of the routes you can take to Mt. Rushmore from the south, and was designed to not only show off the region’s beauty, but also to boost your anticipation and excitement for the carved heads ahead. There are several tunnels through the mountain specifically aimed so that you see Mt. Rushmore perfectly framed through the rock as you drive through them. That was super cool. I tried to snap some pictures, but unfortunately, none of them turned out because the darkness of the tunnel washed out the light at the end. I know: excuses, excuses. First the cave, and now the tunnel. I guess if you are going to be taking pictures in dark places surrounded by rock, you need a special attachment or something. Next time I’m going to go into Wolf Camera beforehand and ask for the “Cave Lens.”
Eventually we made it to Mt. Rushmore where my heart swelled with patriotic pride… Ok, I admit it was pretty neat. It was kinda weird because on one hand I’m thinking, “man, what a waste of a perfectly good mountain” and on the other hand I’m thinking, “Wow! This is cool!” just from the sheer magnitude and hard work put into the thing. It is the largest work of art in the world, surpassing both the pyramids and the sphinx. Plus, as an American, I’ve had this image jammed into my brain pretty much since birth, so to see it in person is pretty surreal (even for my second time). I’ve never seen the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, or the Mona Lisa, but I’m sure the feeling when seeing those iconic emblems would probably be about the same. Just the strange disbelief of seeing it in person alone is worth the experience.

The next day we visited the Cosmos Mystery Area. This place is a pure tourist trap, but it was one of the less-corny things to do in the area, had good reviews on Trip Advisor, and wasn’t too expensive so we thought we would give it a shot. The basic premise to this place is that a couple of college students years ago discovered that this area “defied physics and the laws of nature” so they built a cabin in which to demonstrate this phenomenon through wacky experiments all the while charging admission to passing tourists. So, during this tour I did indeed see water flow uphill, a ball roll uphill, a guy stand at a 45-degree angle off of a wall, people standing on level ground change heights, felt the strange “pull” of the mountain, and several other “unexplainable” feats and demonstrations. I say unexplainable, because I myself will admit that I can not explain them. However, as someone who is deeply cynical and doesn’t believe in anything that can’t be proven, I highly doubt that there is any magic or “unexplainable” paranormal phenomena behind any of it. I think it was all a bunch of well-constructed optical illusions and perception tweeks. That being said, I would have to say it was still fairly entertaining. Here is a picture of our tour guide standing 45-degrees out from what was shown to be a flat ledge with a bubble level. As you can see, the audience appears to be standing uphill on what should be level ground… (insert spooky music here). Whoa!!!

After that we toured another cave, The Sitting Bull Crystal Caverns. Seriously, there are like a hundred caves around this area. This cave found fame as the sometimes-home of Sitting Bull, who used to camp in the entrance during the winter months. This one is privately owned (the family claims to have known Sitting Bull himself), though, and you could totally tell the difference between this one and the one at the national park. It was still pretty neat since it was a completely different kind of cave than Wind Cave. Instead of having boxwork, it was chock-full of pointy crystals hanging down from the ceiling like you were inside a giant geode. There was also a section of the cave that you could explore by yourself with flashlights that my oldest daughter really dug. Alas, the pictures of the crystals really didn’t turn out that well. But, man, wait until next time when I have that cave lens…

There was some other stuff that we did, but that was pretty much it for sight seeing. But in a place like this there was a sight to be seen everywhere you go. I would have liked to have driven through the Badlands, but it would have been an hour just to go there, a drive for at least another hour through the park, and then the drive back which would have been a bit too much. I’ve seen the Badlands before, though, so it wasn’t too big of a disappointment. But, man, that place is pretty cool to see as well.

Oh, we did see the Crazy Horse Memorial on the way out. We didn’t go in, but I did get a chance to snap this picture from the road. They are a bit farther along than when I last saw it over ten years ago, but they still have a way to go until they are finally done. You have to appreciate the persistence and determination, though. They’ve been working on that thing for forever.

Well, that’s the trip. The mrs. did really well despite still feeling a bit under the weather. The only time she said that anything really got to her was when we climbed the 180-something steps back up out of the Crystal Caverns. That’s understandable. Something like that would get people who don’t have lungs full of fluid. So, I was pretty proud of her for not letting a minor setback like bacterial pneumonia keep her from having a good time. Ok, this post is getting way long so I am going to end it now before next Labor Day rolls around. Sass, I’ve been listening to Mother Mother and will let you know what I think in my next post. Take care, faithful readers, until then.

Where I Once Had a Head Full of Thoughts of Happiness and Daily Things, There is Only Strange Darkness Now and in the Darkness This Bird Sings

2007-08-30T09:08:00.000-06:00

Ok, I haven’t posted in awhile so I figured I better check in. Life’s been pretty crazy around here lately. First, the mrs. has had pneumonia. It started a couple of weeks ago with what seemed like a typical cold. Then that cold turned into a bad cough and chest congestion that didn’t go away. So, she went to the doctor and it turned out that she had bronchitis caused by a bacterial infection. No problem, just take this antibiotic and you’ll be fine in a few days. In a few days she was even worse and was completely bed-stricken. The cough was uncontrollable and she was in all out pain and misery. Over the weekend she decided that the antibiotics obviously weren’t doing their job, so she went into urgent care to see if she could get a different kind. Well, they did some blood tests, took some x-rays and sure enough that bacterial bronchitis had turned into pneumonia. They gave her a breathing treatment, a new antibiotic, an inhaler, and a cough medicine chock full of codeine and told her to go home and rest. And rest she did. The good news is that yesterday she went back to the doctor and the diagnosis looks good. Even though she was not “out of the woods” yet, she got the green light to get out of quarantine and return to work (half days). She still has a bad cough, but that will probably linger for a little while longer. I’m just happy that after two weeks this thing is finally turning around for her. That pneumonia thing is pretty scary stuff. People die from that, you know.

The girls also started back to school this week. So, on top of being Dr. John (no, not that Dr. John) I was also getting the young’uns ready for their 9-month complacentcy and socialization indoctrination program. My youngest is just starting kindergarten this year. I’m so proud of her. Just think, in just twelve years she will be docile, disillusioned, beat down by the system, and completely devoid of any individuality. Ahh… to be young again…

Anyway, since the mrs. was pretty much in bed and out of commission, I was taking the girls to school, picking them up, making sure they were fed, dressed, and bathed, helping with homework and all that other stuff you have to do when you have kids in the house. Who knew they would be more than just a nice tax deduction?

Just kidding, actually I’m pretty domesticated. I cook, clean, wash dishes, do the laundry, and fix the girls’ lunches on a regular basis. If you don’t believe me you can ask my wife. You may want to wait a while though, because attempting to talk might induce a coughing fit…

So, I guess what I’m saying is that I haven’t been blogging much lately because of all of this stuff going on. Of course, my posts have been erratic for months now, but at least this time I have an excuse. I’m going away this weekend so I should have another post next week if you want to check back in then. There should be pictures and everything (wow!).

What? Why would I be going on a trip when my wife is just getting over pneumonia? Am I some kind of insensitive, brainless idiot? Well, yes, but here’s the deal: we booked the hotel back in May on one of those super-low internet rates. The catch was that you had to pay in advance and it was non-refundable. So… basically, if we don’t use those rooms then we are out 3 days of hotel rates. Plus we had big plans to meet up with the mrs.’s mom and her husband while we were there. They usually come out here every year on Labor Day, but this time we thought it would be cool if we met somewhere in the middle and see something new and different. So we picked South Dakota. We will drive north and they will be driving west from Minnesota. We planned to hang out in the Black Hills (like Rocky Raccoon) and do all kinds of touristy things like seeing Mount Rushmore and stuff. We were going to just scrap the whole plan and have the mrs.’s mom come out here instead, but the mrs. feels that she is up for the journey and the doctor said it was ok, so we’re going. We are going to try to take it easy, though, and not do anything too strenuous or crazy. Just a relaxing weekend out of town with the in-laws.

Don’t laugh, it’s possible…

So, that’s what’s going on. Thanks faithful readers for hanging in there. Thanks again, Sass, for those music recommendations. I had some other ones passed along to me as well, but I’ll be honest with everything going on I haven’t had much of a chance to check them out. I did see an interview with the guy from The National in The Onion AV Club that you might want to check out, SLG. Have a good Labor Day everyone. It’s my favorite holiday.

The Mountain Came to Recognize It's Deep and Rocky Sides

2007-08-14T08:32:00.000-06:00

So, I finally went hiking again last weekend after taking over 3 weeks off. And since we had that little break to let our muscles go soft, we decided to take it easy and climb a Fourteener.

A "Fourteener" is a mountain over 14,000 ft above sea level. There are 88 Fourteeners in the contiguous United States, with 54 of them residing right here in Colorado. Out of the 54 Colorado Fourteeners, we climbed #38: Mt. Bierstadt at 14,060ft.

If you are a Coloradoan, climbing a Fourteener is like losing your virginity. It is very much a bragging right around here. Some people seek to climb all 54 of them. Certifiably insane people try to climb them all during the winter. Our goal this summer was to summit at least one of them. My ultimate goal is to do Long's Peak (#15, 14,255ft), but after doing Bierstadt I don't think I'm quite ready yet. As far as Fourteeners go, Bierstadt is considered a relatively easier one to accomplish. If that's one of the easier ones, I definitely don't think I'm ready for a climb one as difficult as Long's. Someday, though, someday...

Anyway, here are some of the pics from the hike:

The first part of the trail goes through kind of a muddy swamp full of pointy willow bushes. The boardwalk pictured above is only a few years old. Before that, you had to slog your way through the marsh in ankle-deep mud while getting your thighs scraped apart by the willow branches. Old school hikers lament the boardwalk and argue that traversing the willow swamp was part of the rites of climbing Bierstadt. I, myself, was happy to have a clear trail and to not have wet slimy socks for the rest of the 7-mile hike. Call me a wuss, I guess.

Oh, that's Mt. Bierstadt on the right. Those jagged points make up the Sawtooth that leads to another Fourteener, Mt. Evans. But I'll get to that in a little bit...

After you get out of the swamp, you encounter a series of switchbacks that take you to the base of Bierstadt. You still have to deal with willows, which at times can be shoulder high. I didn't think that this part of the hike was too bad, but it definitely got me huffing and puffing.

Once you clear the willows, you get a bit of a reprieve as the path takes you through an alpine tundra and up to the real ascent. As you can see, it was a bit busy on the trail that day. However, this field was very pretty with little wildflowers growing everywhere. The air was a bit thin up here, but it was a nice, restful stretch before the trail literally shoots straight up the mountain.

After a long, hard, steady straight-up climb, the trail finally levels off a bit and provides a great resting point before hitting the final summit. There is no vegetation this high up, it is literally just a big pile of rocks. Way out in the distance you can see two other Fourteeners: Grays and Torreys. You see that road down there? That's where we parked. I am pretty high up at this point and I'm not even at the peak yet.

That's the peak. It is literally a hands & knees rock scramble up to the top from here. Don't be fooled, those rocks are big. As hard as that last bit of climbing was, I knew by this point that I was going to make it. There was no turning back now.

I hiked a little bit with that guy in the green backpack. He was cool. It was his first Fourteener, too. He had just moved here from Indiana a few months ago and wanted to get one in right away. I moved here 11 years ago and just now got one under my belt. Hey, I was acclimating to the altitude...

Here I am signing the register at the top to document that I made it. Yee-haw! Again, you can see it was a bit crowded that day which kind of took away from the "alone on the top of the world" experience, but it was still extremely cool. Unlike, say Pikes Peak, which is surrounded by a large metropolitan area, Bierstadt is completely surrounded by mountain wilderness and provided some of the best 360 degree views that I have ever seen on one of these hikes. It was absolutely breath-taking (and I'm not just talking about the altitude).

That's Mt. Evans, which is connected to Bierstadt by a ridge of rocks known as "The Sawtooth." Some inspired hikers climb along the Sawtooth over to Evans and knock out two Fourteeners in one shot. I was not that inspired. One was definitely enough for me that day. Plus, the Sawtooth is pretty technical and not to be ventured by amateurs such as myself. On a side note, though, the highest road in the US leads up to the top of Mt. Evans, so some people park a car up there, climb Bierstadt over to Evans and then drive down saving them a climb back down the mountain. For that, the Sawtooth might be worth risking. My knees absolutely hate climbing down.

Eventually I did get down, aching knees and all. It was just in time, too, as you can see our clear blue morning sky quickly turned into a dark, cloudy afternoon. On top of a 14,000 ft. mountain is definitely not where you want to be when you see storm clouds moving in. But by this point we were safely back at our vehicle, completely exhausted from the day's excursion. The mrs. said that she is definitely not interested in doing another Fourteener any time soon, especially Long's Peak which would be over twice as long and probably three times as difficult. While I'm not ready to do another one right away, I am all for getting some more under my belt. As I said, I don't think I'm ready for Long's Peak quite yet, but someday it will be mine. Oh yes, someday it will be mine.

I Got No Reason to Turn My Head and Look the Other Way; We’re Good and We’re Evil, Which One Will I Be Today?

2007-07-31T09:30:00.000-06:00

So, I haven’t posted in awhile because I’ve been kinda down lately. First, my cat disappeared over two weeks ago, which pretty much came about from me being a bonehead and locking him out (see previous post). Then a culmination of other errors followed, including one of the sort that you anguish about days later wondering how in the world you could have been such an idiot. So, I have been pretty much wallowing in my own self-pity trying to sort out the existential question of whether or not I was an inherently good person who made dumb mistakes because it is a part of human nature, or if I am an inherent screw-up who is striving to be a good person, but keeps making mistakes because it is in my personal nature that I can’t escape.

I haven’t slept that well lately. I haven’t hiked in two weeks (although I did spend two lovely weekends with the family instead), and I have spent the past few days in a somewhat mild depression going over and over in my head how I can try to turn things around and make up for my blunders. Luckily, they can be made up, but it will just take a whole lot more work than if I would have just done things right the first time around. What really bugs me is how someone like myself who is typically very rational and level-headed could make such rash decisions and screw things up so badly as a result. Don’t worry, it’s not anything major. I didn’t get arrested, commit adultery, gamble away my life savings, or anything like that. It is simply the kind of thing that you would hear and say, “yep, you were a bonehead.” And that really bothers me because I don’t like to consider myself a bonehead. However, recent evidence has pretty much pointed in that direction.

Then yesterday evening I got a phone call. Apparently a neighbor just saw a flyer that the girls and I hung up a week and a half ago regarding our missing kitty cat. He apologized for just now seeing it and calling, but a cat that matched that description has been visiting him on and off for the past few days. He said he is really friendly and likes to come over whenever he and his wife are outside doing yard work or whatever. He just thought that he was a neighborhood cat since he looked healthy and well-fed. Then he saw our sign and gave us a call to let us know to not give up hope and that next time he saw him he would try to catch him and give us a call. The girls were very excited to get that news.

This morning I was getting dressed and grabbed my cell phone and saw that I had a message waiting. My neighbor had called late last night to tell us that he had our cat and to give him a call anytime to come pick him up. So, before work today I called and went to meet my neighbor’s wife to get our kitty. They literally lived right around the corner, a few houses down. If he was that close why didn’t he just come home? Anyway, she was out in her garage with him in her arms and I knew right away it was our cat. She said he still looked well-fed (he is a BIG kitty) but I could tell he had thinned out a little. He also got in a scrap with some kind of animal because he had a big scratch down the side of his face. But it was him, no doubt about it. I walked him back home and both girls were in the front yard waiting. As soon as they saw me coming down the street with him in my arms they both started yelling cheers of joy. We brought him inside to his food dish and he must have been pretty dehydrated because I think he drank water for at least 5 minutes straight. Then he went around the house sniffing, purring, and rubbing everything with all signs indicating that he was happy to be home. My other cat, though, was not as thrilled as she hissed at him when she first saw him. I think she was enjoying having full run of the house and getting all of the attention as the only cat in the family. Oh well, I think she’ll eventually come around.

So, right now I am still grooving on the feel-good vibes of getting our cat back. I still need to pay penance for my recent bonehead mistakes, but I now have this little reminder to not give up hope. After being gone for over two weeks, our cat has come back to us. Things can still turn around, even if you have long written your chances off. There is always hope, even for a complete screw-up like me.

From the Forest Itself Comes the Handle For the Axe

2007-07-19T08:13:00.000-06:00

Ok, sorry, I know I am a little behind on my post for this week but things have been crazy around here lately. Just a little bit of summer madness in effect keeping life interesting. To top it all off, we realized last night that no one has seen one of our cats in two days. Both of our cats are of the indoor variety, but the male likes to hang out on our back patio whenever we are out there. We figure he must have snuck out Monday night when I was out grilling dinner and we unknowingly shut the door on him, locking him out for the night. With everything going on, we didn't notice his absence Tuesday and it wasn't until we grilled out again last night that we noticed he wasn't on the patio with us hanging out. We searched around the house and he was gone. No sign of him in the surrounding area, either. The humane society was closed by the time we tried to call, so I am going to call when they open up today to see if they picked him up.

He looks like this if you happen to see him. He's a black and white short hair domestic who answers to Tom. He is pretty big, about 3 years old and has black spots on his nose. Let me know if you see him around. I know two little girls who are pretty upset that he's gone.

Speaking of two little girls (and in lighter news), we took them on a hike last weekend up in Rocky Mountain NP. We usually hang out in the southern end of the park, but this time we took a jaunt in the northeast section of the park instead. We did a four mile roundtrip hike up to Gem Lake and back. Both girls did extremely well, especially considering that it pretty much consisted of straight up, straight down hiking.

I really liked this hike, even with it being a little bit shorter than I usually go for. First, there were some amazing views like this one above. Way off in the distance you can see Twin Sisters on the left and Long's Peak & Meeker on the right. That's the town of Estes Park below. It was a little more cloudy than we usually see on a Colorado summer morning, but that was actually good since it helped cool things off on what would have otherwise been a scortching day.

There were a ton of cool rock formations around here. The northern part of the park is known for its good rock climing and bouldering spots and on this trail you could easily see why. These rocks are just begging to be scrambled.

Gem Lake was pretty sweet. It is actually kind of a crater lake surrounded on all sides by amazing rock outcroppings. It was very cool to just hang out on the rocks, have a snack, and soak in the beauty. You can tell that this is a well-visited spot, as the pikas around here were very tame and literally begged on their hind legs for food. The girls thought that was cool.

After we ate, my almost 8-yr old and I decided to do some bouldering and scrambled up one of the rock walls. We got pretty high up there (much higher than even what the picture shows) and the 360 degree views from the top of one of the rock peaks were absolutely breathtaking. The rock formations on the top of the ridge were even more amazing than the ones we had seen below. My daughter loved it and showed absolutely no fear of being so high up, jumping from rock to rock. I even had to call her back several times so she wouldn't get too far ahead. I'm pretty sure her mom would never forgive me if I let her fall off a mountain ledge. So, we got as high as we could go and then turned around to go back down. My daughter was very proud of herself and was very excited about climbing that high up and all of the cool rocks and things that she saw up there. Then she got stung by a bee at let out a scream that could be heard througout the whole valley below. I'm pretty sure they could hear it down in Estes Park, even. The Mrs. flipped out since she heard the scream but had no idea what was going on. But the wee one was brave and made it back down ok. A few (lot) of tears were shed, but eventually she calmed down and her spirits came back as she decided to wear her badge of honor with pride.

So, that was quite an adventure. But overall, it was a pretty good day and I was very proud of how well both girls did. Bee stings aside, I heard no complaints. There's more to this world than video games and Cartoon Network. I'm happy that the girls enjoy experiencing it and I hope that they take away a respect for nature that can last a lifetime. Even when it stings a bit.

In and Around the Lake, Mountains Come Out of the Sky and They Stand There

2007-07-11T06:59:00.000-06:00

Ok, faithful readers here are some more hiking pics from last weekend. You know, if I keep this trend up, I'm going to have to change the marquee at the top of this page to mention something about hiking since this theme has started to dominate this blog of late. Oh well, it beats me whining about work or my lame music reviews right?

Anyway, we hiked in our usual stomping ground, Rocky Mountain NP. Since our hiking buddies took the previous weekend off and we only went on a little hike with the girls, we didn't want to take on any crazy long summit hikes or anything. Instead we opted for an approximate 6-mile trek that took us by four very beautiful lakes in the park.

Our first stop was Nymph Lake, pictured above. This lake was covered in beautiful yellow water lilies like the ones seen below.

It's a real shame that the early morning sunlight kinda washed out the lilies in this pic, but I wanted to post it anyway. Hey, I never claimed to be a photographer, I'm just a guy who likes to take pictures. Anyway, this was a very beautful spot very early on in our journey. Due to its relative closeness to the trailhead, this was a fairly popular spot. In fact, I hear that there is even a fan club of this lake called the Nymphomaniacs. However, I don't think I'm gonna do a search on it while at work...

The next lake we saw on our way was Dream Lake. Or at least I think I saw it. It could have been one of those weird Waking Life lucid moments. I didn't have any lightswitches nearby to check.

There were a few people fishing on this lake, and I can certainly see why as you could see the trout swimming in the water plain as day from the shore. I tried to get a shot of a fly fisherman in mid-cast framed by the beautiful surroundings, but the guy wouldn't cooperate with me. As soon as he saw some strange guy trying to take his picture he refused to cast out until I was gone. What if I was some guy from Field & Stream magazine? He could have been on the cover. But no, he is reduced to being slammed in my blog. What a shame.

After Dream Lake, we hiked up to Lake Haiyaha. There was some decent elevation gain on this part of the trail. To give you some perspective, our first stop, Nymph Lake (R), is pictured below along with neighboring Bear Lake (L). We parked at Bear Lake.

Lake Haiyaha was really cool. To get to the lake we had to traverse giant boulders half-submerged in the backwaters. There was no shoreline, just a huge crystal-clear body of water surrounded by huge rocks.

Disappointingly, I didn't see any marmots on this outing. However, I did see this little guy who literally landed at my feet and hung out for awhile. I also saw a cool hummingbird drinking from a wildflower, but very unfortunately I couldn't get a good shot off. Those little buggers are pretty fast.

Here is a shot of Lake Haiyaha. Or at least some of it. The size of this lake was pretty amazing considering how high up we were. I think I need to get a wide-angle lens or something. Like pretty much all of these shots, the pictures don't do the real thing justice.

On our way back from Lake Haiyaha, we passed an off-shoot trail that led to Emerald Lake. The distance was only an extra .7 miles (1.4 roundtrip) and we still felt fresh se we decided to make the side trip. Little did we know that it was .7 miles straight up. So much for having fresh legs. But it was totally worth it. Framed by Hallett Peak to the left and Flattop Mountain to the right (yes, the flat one in the pic is NOT Flattop. Don't ask me, I didn't name them), it was a very scenic spot.

So scenic in fact, that one could sit in a tree root throne and soak in all of the surrounding natural beauty. Moments like this are priceless and I for sure don't take for granted my ability to enjoy them. This is what it's all about, man.

We Carried You in our Arms on Independence Day, And Now You’d Throw Us All Aside and Put Us on Our Way

2007-07-03T13:19:00.000-06:00

Is there a Fourth of July in England?

The answer to this old riddle is of course there is a fourth of July in England. It’s a trick question. Every country using the modern Gregorian calendar has a fourth of July. Now whether or not they celebrate American Independence Day is another question. I was deeply pondering this when I began to wonder why we call it “The Fourth of July” other than the obvious reason of what day it falls on. The official name for the holiday is “American Independence Day” but you rarely hear that term kicked around unless it is advertising some kind of used car or mattress sale on TV. We don’t call any other holiday by the day it falls on (hey, better buy a turkey for the big “Fourth Thursday in November” feast!) so why do we do it for this one? I mean, we hear every year about the alleged “War on Christmas” and how the name of that holiday has been co-opted and changed to disguise its religious origins, however, no one seems to care that the true nature of this holiday is being co-opted as well. Where are you uber-patriots??? Some one call Fox News! There is a war going on faithful readers and it is being waged against the very birth of our beloved nation! It is happening right under our noses. First they make fireworks illegal, then they start changing the name of the holiday, and the next thing you know they will make pounding down a bunch of good ol’ American brew with your buddies then driving to the fireworks display where you will puke and then pass out before they even start illegal as well! This is a wake-up call my fellow Americans. Stand up for your independence now before they take it away. Wave that flag that you falsely believe Betsy Ross designed, slam a Budweiser, shoot bottle rockets at your neighbors, and for sure ask everyone you hear wishing you a “happy fourth” why they hate America so much. It’s up to you to keep this holiday sacred from those who wish to destroy it. It’s what George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Chester Arthur would do. Me? I’m gonna spend time with the family, grill out some food, watch some fireworks, and read some newspapers, legal documents, and/or commercial contracts all tax-free thanks to some brave, forward-thinking heroes who liked to dress up and dump private property into the harbor. You should, too. Happy American Independence Day everyone!

That is, unless you're Canadian, in which you can ignore all of the stuff above and have a happy belated Canada Day (before they start calling it the "First of July")!

I Got a Nikon Camera, I Love to Take a Photograph

2007-06-27T08:37:00.000-06:00

We went hiking last weekend in Rocky Mountain National Park to Chasm Lake. It was about an 8.5 mile hike roundtrip with a net elevation gain of about 2,400 feet. The trail is rated as "moderate" but I think that must be on the higher end of moderate because there was a whole lotta up on this trail. In fact, the route you take to get to Chasm Lake is the Long's Peak Trail, which goes to the top of 14,000 ft+ Long's Peak. You may remember me saying a few posts back that our goal was to summit Long's by the end of the summer. Well, using this hike as a measuring stick we may not be ready quite yet. I was feeling good at Chasm Lake and felt like I could go on, but summitting would have added another very strenuous 7 miles to our hike, and honestly after finishing at 8.5 I was pretty beat (along with everyone else in our party). Going up is ok, but going down is killer on my knees.

Anyway, the hike was well worth it and the scenery was absolutely beautiful. I took a bajillion pictures on the way (I really do have a Nikon camera...), some of which I included here:

Here is a shot of the sun rising over the Twin Sisters, which we summitted a few weeks ago. This is when we first started out. Even though we left really early to avoid any afternoon thunderstorms, it really wasn't necessary as the sky was a clear blue for our whole time out.

The first leg of the hike is through a thick woods named "Goblin's Forest." I didn't see any goblins, but I did see a bunch of cool, freaky trees like this one above. Since the trail lead straight up pretty much right off the bat, I didn't mind stopping and shooting a couple pics of them.

Coming out of the Goblin's Forest towards the tree line. Right after this the trail turned into huge rock steps that lead all the way up to the base of Long's and Mount Lady Washington. Did you hear about the guy who went to Mount Lady Washington? Her husband saw and got really ticked...

Once we hit the base of Mount Lady Washington's peak, the views were fantastic. There was even an open-air privy hanging on the side of the mountain that provided some very inspiring vistas in which to do your business. However, as comical as it was, I passed on the opportunity.

At the privy, the trail forks one way to the summit and the other to Chasm Lake. We took the trail to Chasm Lake which hung on the side of Long's and granted us spectacular views of several glacial lakes. This is Peacock Lake above, which I am guessing may be named after its amazing blue-green color. Also pictured is Columbine Falls, which we crossed over on the way to Chasm.

We had to cross several snow fields while transversing to the alpine meadow below Chasm Lake. These were pretty steep and even though it looked like a way fun hill to sled down, I wouldn't recommend it. You might not stop until you hit Estes Park if you do...

Once we got above Columbine falls, we entered an absolutely beautiful alpine tundra meadow. We followed this babbling brook for awhile and saw many butterflies, wildflowers, and even this guy...

Which leads to my obligatory marmot shot. They look much cuter when they aren't trying to steal my lunch...

At the end of the meadow we had to scramble straight up a wall of boulders and rock, which was pretty tough especially at that altitude. But after that we were finally at our destination, Chasm Lake, 11,760 feet above sea level. The backdrop pictured is the top of Long's Peak, but the lake is surrounded on all sides by Mt. Meeker, Long's, and Mt. Lady Washington. I can't even begin to express how serene and beautiful this place was. Very cool.

As you can see, there was still a layer of ice floating on the lake but it was starting to break up around the edges. Look at how clear that water is. Seriously, it was like glass. Very cold glass as I found out when I decided to test it out. A mid-hike swim was definitely out of the question.

Here is some guy standing out down by the lake. Funny, I think I saw this guy on our last hike...

Well, there are this week's pics. As I said, I took a whole schlew of them and it was hard trying to pick out just a few. While the straight up then straight down took it out of me, it was well worth it for the sights we encountered along the trail. I don't know if I'm ready for Long's yet, but I am definitely ready for some more hikes like that. Tons of fun.

Lookin’ for Some Hot Stuff Baby This Evenin’

2007-06-21T11:57:00.000-06:00

Well, today is the first official day of summer. So up to this point all of the barbequing, sandal-wearing, outdoor swimming, etc. hasn’t counted. We will be celebrating the summer solstice here in Colorado with a near 100-degree F day. Yee-haw! You know, I love warm weather. But once it starts getting in the triple digits that’s even too warm for me. I usually try to head up into the mountains when that happens since it tends to be 10-15 degrees cooler, but that doesn’t really help when I’m driving down the road in a car with no AC or when attending a middle-of-the-day summer company picnic like yesterday. In fact, I’m sporting a pretty nice red forehead from that little venture. It could have been worse, I guess. Since the sun was directly above me I was spared the wonderful “raccoon look” from wearing my sunglasses.

I know what you’re thinking: Why didn’t you wear a hat and/or put on sunscreen you big dummy? Well, I normally do and I would have, except this was conveniently scheduled during the middle of the work day so everyone could (had to?) attend. So, in order to not mess up my well-coifed ‘do and to avoid smelling like coconut all day I passed. ‘Cuz you know, I’d rather look like a bright-red beet for a few days than have to spend a single afternoon with hat hair…

Anyway, in honor of the official start to my most favorite season, I was going to list off a top-whatever list of “summer” songs. Then, I realized that the vast majority of summer songs are incredibly lame or outrageously overplayed. Seriously, how many times can you hear “Summer in the City” or “Dancin’ in the Streets” before you start asking yourself if it is the end of September yet?

But I don’t want to disappoint, so I was able to come up with a handful of summer tunes:

Doin’ Time by Sublime. Ok, this is basically a cover of an old Gershwin tune that has been redone a thousand times, but I really like Sublime so they make the list.

Blue Sky by the Allman Brothers. Just a happy, feel-good tune. Plus, it is one of those few Allman Bros. songs that doesn’t have a woman’s name in the title…

Girl by Beck. I love Beck. This is a nice little pop track that he put out a year or two ago. It gets a lot of radio play around here, but in this rare case I don’t mind. A good tune to crank while driving along in your little tin can car with all of the windows rolled down because you don’t have AC…

Summertime by Janis Joplin. Basically the same song Sublime covered, but presented in such a different way I thought it would be ok to slip it on the list. Sultry and bluesy, Janis really nailed it on this lesser-known track of hers. She’s at her best when she gets raw and belts it out, and she definitely doesn’t disappoint on this one.

Summertime Blues by Eddie Cochran, but I like The Who’s version myself. However, every time I hear it I think of that weird outfit Roger Daltrey wore at Woodstock (I was going to link a picture of it, but couldn’t come up with a good one doing an image search. So, you’ll just have to trust me on this one…).

See? I’m already running low on good ones. Do I include “Summer” by War or “Hot Fun in the Summertime” by Sly & the Family Stone? I like both of those groups, but IMO those are some relatively weak tracks when compared to their other respective releases. I’m sure there are some more decent summer tunes out there, but all of the rest I can think of either suck completely (“Summer of ’69”by Bryan Adams, anyone?) or get an “eh…” like “In the Summertime” by Mungo Jerry or “School’s Out” by Alice Cooper. So, please help me out fellow bloggers. Any ones that I missed that deserve to go on the list? Any of the few that I did happen to mention that you disagree with? Feel free to chime in, we’ve got a few months.

While I'm Tryin' to Figure It Out I'm on This Ride For the Thrill Of It; Livin' the Dream That's What Life's All About

2007-06-18T18:06:00.000-06:00

So, as promised here are some pics from last weekend's hiking expedition. We had the girls with us, so we didn't do any major summits this time around. Instead, we decided to do a nice hike to a Mills Lake in our usual stomping ground Rocky Mountain National Park.

Our first stop was Alberta Falls, which is a pretty popular spot considering it isn't that far off of the trailhead. Still, it is a pretty spot to rest, grab a drink, and take some pictures before heading on our way.

Here is another shot of the falls a little ways down the chute. Considering the number of down trees swept up by the river, the water must come down pretty powerfully from time to time.

Here is some guy who coincidently also happened to be hiking with his daughters. Boy, those are some of the whitest legs I've ever seen...

The trail to Mills Lake cuts through the side of Glacier Gorge, pictured above. Some of the most scenic parts of the hike came from this section.

This is on the final approach to Mills Lake right after departing Glacier Gorge. I don't know, I thought this puddle and piece of driftwood looked cool framed with the back of Mount Meeker, Long's Peak & company.

And here we finally are: Mills Lake. This picture doesn't do this place justice. It was absolutely beautiful, and despite there being other hikers at the lake today, it was still quite serene. Definitely well worth the hike to get there.

There's an old joke that says that Coloradoans get up earlier on the weekends than they do for work during the week. That's because you have to get in and out before you see one of these guys rolling in. Lucky for us we were almost done with our hike when this afternoon thundershower started coming over. We made it back dry and lightning free. I can't say the same for anyone on top of those peaks...

So, there are a few pics for ya. All told, we hiked about six miles. Both girls did great, though my 5 year-old ended up getting a piggy-back ride right at the very end. It was a very quiet ride home as both of them konked out right away. I had a ton of fun. I couldn't ask for a better way to spend Father's Day weekend.

Even If We Knew Which Way to Head, But Still We Probably Wouldn’t Go

2007-06-14T13:51:00.000-06:00

***Warning*** This post is fairly self-serving, and was pretty much written to help me formulate my own thoughts so I can concentrate on obtaining the personal goals that I have set for myself. An attempt to inspire and motivate me to keep moving forward on the path I’m on, so to speak. Feel free to peruse and take from it what you will. Or you can just skip it and check back next week when I should have some more scenic hiking pictures to share. Your choice.

What can I say? Life is on an upswing for me right now. Just about three months into the new job and things are still going well. We are a week or so away from the start of my favorite season, and I have been trying to take full advantage of the beautiful weather we’ve had lately leading up to that point. The family is doing well, and I really have no complaints. It’s kinda funny because I was reading back through some of my older posts and it’s hard to believe that I ever let myself get so miserable. All it took was a few tweaks in my life (another job, shorter commute, etc) to drastically change my overall outlook. I know these things come in waves and that today’s peak is tomorrow’s ebb, but I am trying to do more to “tweak” how I’m living my life so those ebbs never become as deep nor last so long.

I know that sounds incredibly corny, like I’m some kind of late-night Tony Robbins infomercial guy (You, too, can lead a happy life! Just buy my book…), but I truly believe that for the most part we are masters of our own destiny. We can create our own happiness. It’s not easy, and it takes a lot of work, but I think it can be done. I know what I want and I am now trying to pursue those goals by taking the necessary steps to realize them.

I think that the hardest part of dream realization is the transition time. I have to invest the time, effort, blood, sweat, tears, etc, to get there. Nothing comes quickly, and we have to work hard to get to where we need to be. I can’t just say that I want something and expect it to be given to me. But how does one successfully maintain his/her current life and status while trying to achieve his/her desired life and status? Having to straddle each reality is difficult, and the more you try to reach out and invest in your desires, the wider your straddle becomes, making it more difficult to maintain. One has to gain flexibility to be able to make that stretch. My favorite excuse for putting off doing the steps to get to where I need to be is that I “don’t have any time.” But I had time. I just didn’t want to adjust my already full and rigid schedule to make room for that time. It wasn’t the task that was the problem. The problem was me and my inflexibility to change even when the end result was to my own benefit. I didn’t want to put in the investment towards a long-term reward when I was already comfortable living in the short-term, despite the knowledge that I would be much happier if the long-term payoff would ever come true.

I have known that I was my own worst enemy for a long time, but only until recently have I started to do things about it. I needed to change my paradigms and become flexible enough to make room for the tasks in which I wanted to accomplish. For example, I am one of those people who need to work out for many mental and physical reasons. I am not one of those naturally fit and trim people. I’m ok now, but if I don’t stay active, my body will put on weight and get all kinds of flabby in a hurry. But trying to squeeze in a workout 2-3 times a week when a lot of times my weekdays don’t end until 9:00 or so due to work, kids, etc, can get pretty tough, especially when one is looking to use those few precious hours that he/she has alone with his/her significant other to pencil it in. Plus, after all of that running around all day I often feel too worn out to all of a sudden get all active. So what did I do? I decided to get up an hour earlier a couple days a week and exercise then. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I am definitely NOT a morning person. So, deciding to not only get up at 5:00am but to sacrifice an hour of precious sleep on my own volition is a huge deal for me. I’ve been doing it for a couple of months now, and so far I’ve stuck with it. I’m not going to lie to you. It’s really hard for me to get out of bed that early especially when contemplating that ever-attractive snooze alarm vs. getting up first thing in the morning and physically exerting myself. However, that little bit of sacrifice has really paid off for me. Plus, in the long run what will mean more to me? Getting that extra hour of sleep or my physical and mental well-being?

I’ve also made a goal to get out and do a lot more hiking this summer. I love the mountains and I love to hike. However, that, too, involves getting up at an ungodly hour to do it (and on the weekend, nonetheless). Did I really want to forgo my sleep-in Saturday to get up at the crack of dawn? As much as I hated to do it, I did and the payoff was well worth it (see previous post). The old John would have argued that Saturday was “my day” and that I had earned the right to sleep in after a long week of work. But why was I working? So I could afford the life I wanted to lead. As I said, I love the mountains and I love to hike. If I wasn’t doing it so I could grab a couple hours of more sleep, was I really living the life I wanted to lead? Years from now I will remember that hike and how awesome it was. I can honestly say that I’m not thinking back to myself saying, “Remember that Saturday I slept in back in ’96? Boy, that was that the defining moment of my life.”

But both of those cases are just smaller scale examples of the philosophy I have now decided to apply to my entire life. We only get one spin on this merry-go-round, and I want to make my ride worth it and know that I spent my time well. I’ve had time all-the-while. I just wasn’t spending it wisely. The hard part will be trying to make this philosophy stick. I can feel the straddle getting wider. I just need to keep myself flexible and looking ahead to the time when I can finally step-off and stand firmly in the place where I want to be. I control my destiny and I can make it happen. Where I am at is pretty good, but I can do better. Here’s to working towards that goal.

An Image of You and of Me and We're Laughing and Loving It All

2007-06-10T22:38:00.000-06:00

So, one of my big goals this year was to get a lot of good hiking in this summer. I used to be all into it, but once the girls were born it was kind of hard to really get out there and get some good climbs in. We take them on little 3-mile nature hikes now and they do ok, but with their little legs they're not exactly ready to take on any big peaks. My wife works with a lady who used to climb fourteeners regularly with her husband, but they kinda fell out of it in the last couple of years due to a lack of climbing partners and just overall burnout. So when they heard that we were looking to get back into the groove, they offered to have their daughter watch the girls and we began to plan our summer outings.

This past weekend was the first of our hikes this year, and we started out on a moderate climb, the Twin Sisters just adjacent to Rocky Mounatin National Park. This mountain is so named by its two prominant peaks and has an elevation of 11,428 feet.

The first part of the 7.4 mile roundtrip is a steady climb through a trail in the woods. This part is fairly gradual, with several switchbacks along the way.

Here we are finally out of the woods and above the treeline. You can see row after row of the smaller foothills going out into the horizon. That's the town of Estes Park down below.

Above the treeline, it was pretty much rock scrabble all of the rest of the way. There was still a decent trail to follow so we had to do minimal scrambling. As you can see, even though it is called "Twin" Sisters, there are several smaller peaks in between the two major ones. So it's actually a whole gaggle of sisters, a "Little Women" of mountains, if you will.

Getting closer... We really lucked out with some fabulous weather. We had to get up at the very crack of dawn so we could summit and get down before the afternoon weather started rolling in. It was well worth it. Besides a few straggling clouds the sky was clear blue. Check out those snow-capped peaks in the background. Simply amazing and, honestly, the pictures don't do that view justice. Awe-inspiring, for sure.

We made it! Well, most of us anyway. I'm still lagging behind playing around with the camera. Oddly, there was a woman sitting crosslegged on top when we got there. I tried to ask her what was the meaning of life but she told me to buy a dictionary. Go figure.

Here is a view of Mount Meeker (the shorter of the two) and the fourteener, Long's Peak. Our tentative goal is to summit Long's by the end of summer, but we'll see. I've heard it's a pretty tough one, but I can see it from my house and have stared at it since I moved here over 10 years ago and have wanted to conquer it. Check back in late August to see if make good on that one or not.

Once we got to the top we took a break and had a snack. Then a marmot came who was also interested in eating my lunch.

Get away you oversized squirrel!!! This guy was a monster, seriously. He was really agressive, too. Apparently he had a taste for cheese & crackers and trail mix. We eventually had to scare him off with a hiking pole, though if he did manage to take my lunch I would be wearing a marmot-skinned hat on my next trip...

A shot of the other twin sister. I don't know if that's Mary-Kate or Ashley. I can never tell them apart.

Hey, I was up there once. After we got back down, the dark clouds started rolling in. We met a lot of people going up as we were coming down. I sure hope they didn't get caught in a storm. The weather was still great when we got back to town. We had a bbq to celebrate the day, and then we went home to shower and groan about our sore muscles the rest of the night (and most likely the next few days after).

I know I've said it a bajillion times, but life in Colorado is good. Man, I love summer.

Where I's Headed, Well, I Didn't Really Say; The Road was Calling and I's on My Way

2007-06-03T16:50:00.000-06:00

Ok, sorry, I know I'm a bit late with these, but here are some shots from my Memorial Day weekend roadtrip:

Curecanti Recreational Area. This is the south part of the Black Canyon, where it opens up into the very impressive Blue Mesa Reservoir. We took an hour and a half boat ride from the reservoir up into the canyon. The first half consists of a tour guide sharing the history of the canyon while the second half was a chance to get up, relax, and snap some sweet pictures.

After the boat ride, we went into neighboring Black Cayon of the Gunnison National Park and looked down. This is a shot of the North Rim of the canyon right off of the Chasm View overlook. This is the narrowest part of the canyon, about 2,100 feet from the bottom.

The Painted Wall, so named by the streaks of color in the wall due to magma shooting through the original rock layers over a billion years ago. Boy, I sound like I know a lot about geology, but really the tour guide in the boat told me that.

Um, this is just a pretty shot that I like. My daughter found a wildflower laying on the path, but the sign said not to pick them, so she set it in the knot of this rail so no one would think that she picked it. My wife came up behind us and caught the picture.

On the way home we stopped in Colorado Springs and climbed to the top of Helen Hunt Falls (I'm really trying hard to suppress a lame Mad About You joke here...). This is about halfway up the falls before the main, big drop.

So, there are a few scenery shots of Southwest Colorado. It was a beautiful weekend and I had a super amount of fun. I know I got all gushy in my last post about how much I love Colorado summers, but seriously, with places like this right out your backdoor how could you not love living here? Anyway, it was a great kick-off to the summer season and I am way pumped to get out there and enjoy those mountains some more.

The Mountains and the Trees, Are They Just What You Need?

2007-05-24T12:23:00.000-06:00

Hey, what can I say? Life has been good lately. Of course, that usually means that life is trying to catch me being complacent before it kicks me square in the rear end again, but for now I’m enjoying it. I’ve been at the new job for two months now and that is still going really well. It’s not the miracle cure for monotonous boredom as I had hoped, but it is definitely WAY better than the old job, that’s for sure. Just the difference of how I’m treated as an employee makes the whole change worth it. I guess that’s the advantage of working for a local, mid-sized municipality versus working for a super large Fortune 500 company that treats labor solely as a resource instead of an asset worth investing in. And man, I sure as heck don’t miss that commute to Denver every morning.

Not much to complain about on a more personal level, either. My allergies have been kicking up the past few weeks, which I only bring up because as faithful Inaction readers may remember, I had nasal surgery last summer to help correct a lot of sinus structural problems that I had been suffering from since, well, birth. And while suffering from seasonal allergies is certainly no picnic, I have to say that it is a completely different experience now that everything has been fixed. First of all, things drain as they are supposed to, as opposed to not draining, building up and blocking my sinus passages, then turning into a lingering infection. I’m aware that mucous is not exactly a subject most bloggers would like to read about, but hey, I think the ability to breathe is something most people take for granted, and trust me, if you finally could after 30 years or so of not being able to, you’d be as ecstatic about allergy drainage as I am.

Ok, maybe not.

In other news, I am going away for Memorial Day weekend, and I am totally pumped. You see, I love summer, I love road trips, and I absolutely love Colorado. This trip will be a combination of all three. A triumvirate if you will. We are going to drive down to Gunnison, CO, this weekend to visit the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. I’ve wanted to visit the Black Canyon for a long time now, and I am very excited at the prospect of finally getting to go there. I have heard it is absolutely gorgeous plus it will give me an opportunity to cross off another NP from my list. You see, I have this odd goal of wanting to visit every national park in the US. I’m not even close to the 56 or so NPs in the US, but after this weekend I’ll be one closer… Plus, I will have finally visited all four Colorado NPs (Rocky Mountain, Great Sand Dunes, Mesa Verde, & Black Canyon of the Gunnison). It only took me 11 years or so of living here, but hey, I’ll have done it, right? I’m sure that there are many CO natives that haven’t been to any of them. How could anyone take for granted the paradise in which we Coloradoans are lucky to live???

Did I mention that I love Colorado?

Even more, I love Colorado during the summer. Some people are here for the winter skiing, but to me nothing beats a Colorado summer. I think that probably tops my long list of reasons of why I love to live here. And since Memorial Day is the unofficial kick-off to summer, I say “bring it on!” I can’t wait. I’ll be sure to post plenty of pictures so you all can understand the reasoning behind this big gushfest. Even better, you all should visit here at some point during your lifetime. You won’t regret it. You may even end up moving here because of it. I did.

Was Always Tangled Up in Knots to Keep Myself from Speaking Up, But No One’s Listening Anyway…

2007-05-11T12:34:00.000-06:00

I’ve decided to come out of the closet. I can’t live with the secrecy and shame any more. No, it’s not what you are probably thinking. I’m talking about popular music. That is, music that is so popular, or has such a hardcore fan base that something is assumed to be wrong with you if you don’t immediately drop to your knees and prostrate yourself the second a name is mentioned. And I’m not talking about the sheer numbers teenybopper stuff like Britney Spears. I’m talking about the stuff that the general “in-the-know” listening public has deemed to be the “no denying it”, quintessential cream of the music crops. And while the general consensus of millions of these in-the-know listeners speaks otherwise, I don’t really care for these artists. Up until now, I have been cautious about speaking out against most of these bands on this blog out of fear that I would lose my vast throngs of readership (yeah, right). But I shall live in fear no more. Here is a non-exclusive list of artist/artists that despite their huge popularity and critical acclaim, I just really couldn’t care less about:

Radiohead. Ok, I know they are the darlings of musical hipsters everywhere, but I really can’t stand them. And no, it’s not that I “just haven’t given them a chance” or “haven’t heard any of the best stuff they don’t play on the radio.” Trust me. I have listened to Radiohead ad nauseam (and in this case, literally nausea…). As soon as you tell a Radiohead fan that you don’t like Radiohead they instantly try to convert you, or treat you as if you have some kind of illness that must be cured by unlimited exposure to more Radiohead. Look everybody; I am really happy that this band makes you really happy. Seriously, I am. But give up. You aren’t going to win me over. Ever since the first time I heard that “I’m a creep, I’m a weirdo” song on the radio (and my buddy and I fully trashed it), I have thought they sucked. And that super whiney “Karma Police” song makes my ears bleed. Not that I don’t listen to other whiney, depressing music, but Radiohead just doesn’t do it for me at all. There, I said it. Let the public stoning begin.

The Righteous Brothers. I know. You are thinking, “What???? The Righteous Brothers? Who could hate them?” But, I’m telling you, like several others on this list, I would rather crash my car trying to turn the radio station fast enough to avoid even the first opening notes of one of their songs. I don’t know if it’s the connection with that horribly terrible movie Ghost or what, but I just can’t tolerate “Unchained Melody” even in the very slightest. And “You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling”? That song was bad before Top Gun turned it into a cliché. I know the ladies like ‘em, but you know what? The ladies also like Al Green, Marvin Gaye, and lots of other more talented soul singers. I’ll stick with them, thank you.

Madonna. This one should be self-explanatory, however, my brain cannot fathom why so many individuals who have otherwise decent tastes in music hold her in such high regard. I realize that nothing I say here will ever change the minds of her hundreds of millions of worshipers, but consider this: what makes Madonna a more popular figure, her talent or her knack of constantly staying “controversial” in the public eye? I’d argue that at this point in her career she is more like a follower and amplifier of the trends than a trend-setter, but even if she was the leading boundary-pusher, does that make her a good musician? Or does she just know how to play the showbiz game? Hmmm… I have a hunch it’s the latter. Plus, I blame her for making Guy Ritchie’s movies suck. He was cool. Then he married Madonna and his movies began to suck. Correlation? You be the judge.

The Cure. The reaction to this one is similar to the one I get from Radiohead, though not as vehement. How could I DARE not like The Cure? Well, honestly, I just don’t get into Goth music that much and they are like the kings of Goth. Again, the vocals are whiney and the music depressing. Plus Robert Smith is kind of a wuss. I prefer the Robert Smith that used to play running back for the Vikings. Of course, that last statement probably just explained to every single Cure fan why I don’t “get” the Cure. You know, because I’m just a dumb, meathead jock and stuff.

Motley Crue, Poison, Def Leopard, Bon Jovi, and every other 80s hair band. Didn’t like them in the 80s, don’t like them now. They are the epitome of cheese and superficiality. Or maybe I just said that to counter my meathead jock image…

U2. It’s not that I hate U2. I can respect them and admit to their talent, but I’m not a fan. They have some ok songs, but I think the total radio saturation has gotten to me. Seriously, how many stations can these guys be played on? I can hear the same 25-year old song on the classic rock channel, the alternative channel, the modern rock channel, the lite-rock channel, the top-40 channel and just about every other channel out there. All they need is to have a rap-remix of one of their songs and they would have all of the formats covered. Let’s just get it over with and introduce an all-U2 radio station format. I’m sure it will work. A handful of the Denver stations are pretty much already there…

Prince. At this point I think I’ve pretty much lost SLG’s readership forever, but I’m going to venture on and discuss the Great Purple One. Like U2, I don’t hate Prince. I just don’t understand why he is so highly regarded as this great talented musician. I actually lived in the same town in Minnesota as Prince (funny, I never saw him in sweat pants at the local Target or in line at McDonald’s…) and people, including good friends, would swear up and down that Prince was one of the most amazing guitarists ever and that he kept endless reels of his guitar-playing virtuosity locked in his studio vault. I’ve heard this from many unrelated sources. However, if this is true, why is it being locked up? Why is none of this virtuosity ever featured on any of his songs? Sure, he can crank out a catchy pop dance tune, but other than a couple solos on Purple Rain, I can’t think of any times I’ve witnessed Prince really grind his axe (I mean, seriously, he didn’t even bother to plug it in during the Super Bowl). Can he play it or not? Prove it to me, Mr. Prince, and I’ll rescind all I’ve ever said against you. Until then, you get categorized with all of the other cheesy top-40 hip-hop dance “artists.”

I’m sure there are plenty more that I need to come clean on, but I think I am going to stop for now. If I deeply offended you by putting your favorite band on this list, then I’m sorry but that’s just how it is. I can’t argue with my ears. I can neither pretend nor keep silent any longer. Judge me as you will. I'm ready for the backlash.

Tomorrow May Come, Tomorrow May Never Come Again

2007-04-25T16:52:00.000-06:00

So, I was listening to the radio last night and the DJ was discussing a list that Rolling Stone magazine put out regarding the top 25 guilty pleasure bands or something like that. He listed off some of the artists which I can safely say I take no pleasure in guilty or otherwise, but then he mentioned that the number one guilty pleasure band of all time is none other than that Canadian power trio Rush. The DJ went on to say that he didn’t consider Rush to be a “guilty pleasure band” and that he was unaware of any Rush fans who were embarrassed to admit that they dug Rush since they were legitimately talented rock musicians. That’s when I bowed my proverbial head in shame because I realized that I could be one of the “secret” Rush fans to which the list was alluding.

Even though I haven’t listened to Rush regularly in years (at least since high school), I still have tons of Rush albums stashed away and could still readily list off my favorite tracks, albums, etc from the band. I’ve seen them in concert a number of times. I will attest to the musical virtuosity of each of the respective members, and would not be afraid to list Neil Peart as one of the best drummers of all time. Plus, he writes a lot of the song lyrics as well. Only a real geek would know that. And maybe that’s the problem. Listening to Rush is often equated with being a geek. It is hard to pretend to be a hipster and listen to all the cool, hipster artists and yet have 80s prog-rock albums in your collection. It’s contradictory. But then again, isn’t being hip really about not trying, not caring, and actually embracing things not generally considered “hip” by the mainstream? So, wouldn’t listening to Rush by that definition actually be a hip thing to do? Can I really crank “By-tor and the Snow Dog” without fear of shame by my peers?

Eh, I didn’t think so.

But it did make me wonder what other albums that I have stashed away in my collection that I would be equally embarrassed by should the hipster police come calling. I don’t have my CD collection in front of me right now, but I do know that it contains some of these treasures:

Stone Temple Pilots. My friends and I LOVED this band in high school. I have very fond memories driving around in my buddy Troy’s T-bird cranking these guys. We even saw them a number of times in concert. I never did understand why they were accused of ripping off Pearl Jam. They sound nothing like them. But still to this day, if you claim to be a STP fan, you get dogged on because of it. Sure, they weren’t the best grunge band (that title goes to Alice in Chains), but they are still a fun listen. Plush is a bit overplayed, but “Crackerman” is a great volume-cranker, and I still have a fondness for “Big Empty.” So there, I admit it. What else…

Ok, Hank Williams Jr’s Greatest Hits. Wait... come back I can explain. You see, I spent almost 10 years of my life in Tennessee, from first grade until just before my sophomore year in high school (please don’t hold it against me). Back in the late 80s/early 90s Hank was huge. Well, at least down south. He was entertainer of the year like three times in a row, singing MNF theme songs and selling out arenas everywhere. In fact the first concert I ever paid to see was to a Hank Jr show. Believe it or not, my friends and schoolmates were very jealous that I got to go. So, even though that CD hasn’t been spun in at least 15 or more years I still hold onto it just for that memory. And for the record, no, I don’t listen to country music of kind. And no, I will not explain why I saw Hank twice, or why I have also seen Kenny Rogers, Charlie Daniels, Lee Greenwood, or a handful of other country concerts either…

The Cars. Does this count as a guilty pleasure? When I was a sophomore in high school they were a permanent fixture in my CD changer. However, after about a year or so of countless listenings, I haven’t listened to them since. Even when they come on the radio I kind of shrug. I keep the disc around though just in case I get a biting case of nostalgia and need to hear “Let’s Go” immediately. That’s never happened, but you know, if I ever got rid of it you know it would.

There are many more like that, but I think I am getting off-track. Technically, for it to be a “guilty-pleasure” it has to be a band that you secretly love but you are embarrassed to admit that you love them. Do I have any bands like that… hmmm… let me see… you know, once during a music conversation at a past place of employment, I was dogging on AC/DC. I don’t consider myself an AC/DC fan by any means (does every single song have the exact same drum beat or what?), but a buddy of mine called me out and said that he bet that when I am all alone in the car that if an AC/DC song came on the radio I would be cranking it like everybody else. Sad thing is, years later, I have found this to be true. I will be driving along absent-mindedly and notice that I am in the middle of “Who Made Who” or “Shoot to Thrill” and totally cranking it. And don’t even ask me about singing along to “Big Balls”…

But the biggest guilty pleasure that I can think of right now has to be early Van Halen. I know, they totally cheesed out with Sammy Haggar and then (even worse) with Gary Cherone of Extreme. Yes, I know they put out a whole bunch of really crappy records in the late 80s and onwards. However, back in the David Lee Roth days they totally rocked. Ok, I know I’ve just lost all of my hipster credibility, but listen to their first two albums and then tell me that Eddie Van Halen doesn’t deserve all of the guitar god praise that he gets. But bottom line is that the songs are fun to listen to. I don’t put in a VH album very often, but you can guarantee if I hear some classic VH like “Unchained”, “Hot for Teacher”, or especially “Eruption” it’s getting cranked. Guilty as charged.

Inspired by True Events on Movie Screens

2007-04-17T09:42:00.000-06:00

I am a music junkie. I want to qualify that statement because it is not a claim I want to make lightly. I’ve known and befriended many a music aficionado in my day, but I doubt very few would consider listening to music as an addiction. They probably consider it just a pleasant way to pass the time or to enhance his/her enjoyment of life. However, I show all the signs of obsessive behavior. The advent of digital downloading has only compounded this compulsion. I am constantly looking for new music, adding to my collection, and expanding my exposure to new sounds. When I hear one album, I’m on to the next. I don’t just listen to one release. If I like what I hear, I go for the whole discography. If I really like it, then I’m onto the influences and contemporaries of that particular selection. When I’ve exhausted that, I’m on to the next thing and the cycle starts all over again.

I had a buddy in college who understood this addiction more than any one else I’ve ever met. You see, he was also afflicted. We spent many an hour in long conversation regarding the topic of music appreciation, and while our tastes often differed, we both had a mutual respect for each other’s passion. However, there was always a friendly difference of opinion on how one should store his/her music collection. This difference of opinion was known as the “Crate vs. Rack” debate.

My buddy Nate had a lot of CDs. I mean A LOT of CDs. He stored these CDs in a number of plastic milk crates. In order to find a CD to listen to, one would have to sort through all of the crates until that individual found the desired selection in which he/she wanted to hear. Personally, I found this to be a huge pain. Nate, however, loved the randomness of it all. Instead of searching for a particular CD, he would think “Hmmm, what should I listen to?” and then dig around until something struck his fancy. Kind of like a physical disc “shuffle.” Or to paraphrase Forrest Gump, “life is like a crate of CDs, you’ll never know what you’ll find…”

Now, a system like that (if you want to call it a “system”) would drive me completely nuts. I’m the kind of guy who has to have a specified order and know exactly where things are when I need them. If my brain all of a sudden gets a hankering for “Strokin’” by Clarence Carter, I don’t want to have to spend a half hour digging through CD crates. I want to go to my rack, find the letter “C” and then pull out the disc in question. Yes, I put my CDs in alphabetical order, then chronological by release date. I know that according to High Fidelity that cataloguing in this fashion is extremely amateur, but again, I want to know exactly where things are when I need to find them. Sure, I miss out on being able to roll my eyes in snobbish exasperation when I explain that my albums are placed in the order of the studio name in which they were respectively recorded starting with Abbey Road, but really, I’d take convenience over that rarely-occurring pleasure of elitism any day.

So which way is better? It is all subjective, I guess. Neither Nate nor I ever came to a conclusion of our debate, but we could both recognize the merits of both. I supposed with the advent of the iPod and the digital music revolution that the point has finally been rendered mute out of obsoletion, however, I would still like to hear everyone’s opinion. So sound off. Which is better: the “crate” or the “rack”?